


pythons/elephants (the little wild animals remix)

by badacts



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Adventures in Surprise Childcare, Age Regression/De-Aging, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 08:56:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15045449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badacts/pseuds/badacts
Summary: Let the record state that Kevin Day is not Aaron’s first choice for co-parenting.





	pythons/elephants (the little wild animals remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elyteracy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elyteracy/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Dedicated to boa constrictors who've eaten an elephant](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12913197) by [elyteracy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elyteracy/pseuds/elyteracy). 



> To Elysabeth - this was a pinch-hit, so apologies that's it's not so long and for any mistakes, but I really enjoyed remixing this fic! Mostly because it's adorable but also the tag-team Aaron-and-Kevin babysitting is stupid-funny as a concept :D hope you like what I've done with it!
> 
> NOTE: minor content warning for references to canon child abuse.

Let the record state that Kevin Day is not Aaron’s first choice for co-parenting.

“What do we do with them?” Kevin hisses.

Aaron was really enjoying having his suite in Fox Tower to himself for the entire Christmas break while Matt is in New York and Nicky is in Columbia with Erik. Sure, he misses Katelyn, who is on vacation with her parents, but still. It was fine. Good, even. Instead, now he’s standing shoulder-to-shoulder (or close enough, considering) with Kevin and watching two kids on the couch apparently transfixed by SpongeBob SquarePants.

Actually, Aaron could probably cope with this, if the children in question weren’t Aaron’s brother and Neil fucking Josten.

_ I woke up and they were like this _ , Kevin had muttered when he’d dragged Aaron in here.  _ Also I think Andrew was planning on killing me _ .

Sure, waking up with an eight-year-old holding a knife standing next to the bed was probably enough to startle you, but Kevin lived with Andrew and it really wasn’t that different.

“Wait,” Aaron supplies. It’s the most sensible thing - whatever happened was clearly spontaneous, so hopefully it’ll just...wear off. As to where they came from, he’s not thinking about it, because the pair of them are wearing little kids clothes that fit, and no, Aaron’s  _ not thinking about it _ .

Kevin looks unsatisfied. “Should I call Wymack?”

Aaron gestures to the couch. “Yeah, I bet they’ll react really well to that.” They’d been suspicious enough of Kevin for his height and size, though they’re clearly more comfortable with Aaron.

“We can hear you,” Neil informs him balefully. ‘More comfortable’ isn’t saying that much. The two of them are scrunched close together against the arm of the couch, allies in quiet nervousness.

“Do you two want something to eat?” Aaron asks. 

They both perk up at that. Aaron says out of the side of his mouth, “Tell me you have food in here.”

Kevin’s expression answers for him. Aaron sighs.

“We’ll go down the street, there’s a restaurant,” he supplies. “Do you guys like pancakes?”

Eight-year-old Andrew is apparently not that different to twenty-one-year-old Andrew, because his expression is pretty stoic but he practically jumps to his feet.

“How are we going to get there?” Kevin mutters. “Andrew can’t dri…”

Aaron, unexpectedly, grins. “No. No, he can’t.”

 

* * *

“You know, I really didn’t expect you to drive like this,” Kevin notes.

“What, sanely?” Aaron replies. He’s trying his best - Nicky taught him to drive, though Aaron spent more time trying to glean what  _ not _ to do. “We’ve got two kids in the back without booster seats, and I really don’t want to get pulled over by the cops.”

Kevin frowns. “What’s the law for booster seats here?”

“Do you really think I know that off the top of my head? Fuck’s sake.”

“You shouldn’t say the f-word,” Neil chirps from the backseat, though his expression when Aaron tosses him a look says he’s heard it plenty of times even if he’s been reminded not to say it.

Andrew, meanwhile, is staring at Aaron in the rearview mirror. He may be eight right now, but he’s apparently aware enough to recognise that Aaron looks eerily similar to him, even with more than decade between them currently.

The two of them are painfully young, but Aaron can already see the shaping their childhoods thus far have given them. Neil hasn’t really learned to hide yet, his emotions writ clear on his face, but he’s bright-quick and avoidant when he needs to be in a way Aaron recognises. Andrew is already too quiet, too perceptive, his lack of naivety painful to observe.

Aaron hates it. He tries not to ever feel sorry for himself, never mind them, but when you’re dealing with children it turns out that it’s damn sight harder.

They pull into a fortuitous parking spot right near the local diner, Neil bouncing free of the car and Andrew following at a more sedate pace. Kevin rushes after them to usher them through the doors, bent over almost in half like he needs to be on their level to keep a close-enough eye on them.

They take one of the booths towards the back. The waitress comes over to offer them coffee, and she gives them a slightly puzzled look, which is fair because they’re two twenty-something men with children.

Kevin opens his mouth to give a, no doubt, terrible and over explained excuse that will make them sound like child traffickers. Aaron kicks him hard under the table. “Coffees for us, hot chocolates for them, please.”

“Big brother brunch?” she asks, though she doesn’t wait for an answer before adding, “I’ll get those right out.”

“Are you my brother?” Andrew asks in the ensuing silence.

Aaron, through sheer power of will, does not laugh. “Yes, I’m your older brother.”

The look Andrew gives him, half-combative and a fraction fearful, wipes away any humour Aaron might have felt. “So I don’t have to live with the Pritchards anymore?”

For a moment, Aaron can’t speak. It’s Kevin that comes through and says, “No. No, you live with us now.”

“Do you play Exy?” Neil asks, either because he has no grasp of the turn the conversation has taken or entirely too much of one. 

“Yes. I’m a striker,” Kevin replies. “And Aaron is a backliner.”

Neil turns an expectant, eager look on Aaron. “So am I!”

This time it’s Kevin who twitches. This day is just turning into a whirlwind of traumatic flashbacks, apparently. Fortuitously, the waitress returns just then, dropping off their drinks and asking what they want to order. Of course, they keep her waiting for ten minutes while Kevin reassures Neil and Andrew both that they can order what they want, Andrew choosing pancakes and Neil eggs with a side of fruit. Aaron just points at something random when it comes to him.

Neil does at least wait until they’re almost finished eating to ask, “Where’s my mom?”

 

* * *

By the time they get the two of them back in the car, Kevin looks wide-eyed again and Aaron has a feeling he isn’t doing much better. This is when Aaron declares, “We’re going to the court.”

It’s not until they arrive that it occurs to Aaron that they don’t have any gear appropriately sized for children, and that Neil’s heavy racquet is doubly unsuitable (another thing he doesn’t think about). Instead, he goes through and finds two size one light racquets and warns Neil and Andrew that if they hit each other even accidentally then he’s taking them back to the dorm.

Kevin, wearing gloves but nothing else and carrying his own racquet, takes over from there. Aaron slinks out the door and lies on the home bench, staring up at the distant ceiling. He has no idea what he did in a past life to deserve this, but even with the murder he thinks he’s well and truly redeemed for the next one.

He’s contemplating having a nap when the court door opens and closes, followed by the sound of small feet. It’s not that surprising to hear Andrew say, “You look like me.”

Aaron considers this, and then rolls over onto his belly, chin pillowed on his hands. Andrew has lost the racquet and is standing almost over him. It’s strange dealing with someone so uniquely Andrew and yet not - the desire for personal space is there, but there’s none of the air of violence, the knife threat from this morning aside. 

“Yeah,” Aaron replies.

“Are you really my brother?” Also, he might be quiet, but his expression gives him away with the thoughtful furrow of his brow.

“Really,” Aaron says. The doubt is the tiniest bit funny, considering that, age aside, they’re literally identical. “Are you having fun?”

This earns him another slightly wary look, but Andrew still says, “Yeah.”

This is half-belied an instant later when Neil comes wheeling off of the court in search of Andrew, and Andrew pretends to be unmoved by and uninterested in the whole idea of Exy and in Neil in general. 

“They’re exactly the same,” Kevin notes, sounding a little awed by the realisation. He’s not really wrong.

 

* * *

Kevin wasn’t entirely right: there’s nothing that could technically called a child-suitable meal in the suite’s kitchen, but there is a shitload of ice cream. 

Andrew eats an entire bowl of chocolate fudge and then finishes off both Neil and Aaron’s. Kevin makes some eggs for himself and puts on the least violent movie he can find from Nicky’s stash. 

Disney has more parental death in it than Aaron remembers, but thankfully neither Andrew nor Neil ask any more family-related questions. Fobbing Neil off once had been enough, and Aaron knows he’s probably suspicious anyway.

Andrew and Neil have a bean bag each, and Aaron procures blankets for them before taking the couch. Kevin is preoccupied at his desk with his headphones in, presumably blocking out the sounds of the Simba singing. 

Aaron is half-hoping that they’ll just doze off during the movie, but of course they seem to hit a second wind when the credits start rolling.  _ He’s _ tired as fuck, and it seems like a gargantuan task to figure out a way to entertain them. In the end, he interrupts Kevin’s perusal of Exy videos he’s probably already watched twelve times and steals the laptop. He almost hands it over to Andrew and Neil, but then abruptly remembers that Kevin doesn’t exactly have safe-search. Instead, he ends up between the two of them on the couch, clicking child-friendly links at their request.

It’s...different. Andrew is still standoffish, but he softens with distraction, and Neil is unafraid of touching Aaron in a way that he at twenty would never. They’re heavy-warm and...they’re kids. They’re just kids.

Eventually, the hours of Exy catch up with them, and the enthusiasm for new videos drops off. Aaron, who at this point could have been clicking porn links for half an hour, rouses enough to herd them to the bedroom.

They end up in Neil’s bed together. Kevin makes some vague noises about clothes and brushing teeth, but Aaron mutters about worrying about that tomorrow and he gives up on it. Who knew that it only takes two surprise children to finally shut Kevin up - Aaron is going to hold onto this information, because thanks to Andrew he suspects he’s never really going to be free of Kevin.

On the other hand, he is never, ever going to let Kevin babysit any future potential child he may or may not have. At least, not unsupervised. Then again, Aaron fed them ice cream for dinner, but they’re still alive, so it’s probably fine.

“Don’t wanna sleep,” Neil mumbles, though he’s struggling to keep his eyes open. He has an arm wrapped around Andrew like he’s a teddy bear, and it just figures that he would be the protective one.

Aaron is tempted to tell him to be quiet, but the little shit would probably wake up just to argue with him. Instead he makes a soothing sound and tiptoes out of the room, leaving the door cracked behind him in case…just in case. 

Kevin is tidying up in the lounge when Aaron goes to leave with a quiet, “I’m going to bed.”

“You can’t leave me with them!” Kevin says, thankfully downshifting his volume halfway from ‘yelping’ through.

“They’re asleep!” Aaron hisses back.

“That doesn’t mean they’ll  _ stay _ asleep.”

Aaron glares at him so hard that Kevin should by all rights be dead instantaneously. Instead he just stands there looking all wound up like an idiot until Aaron says, “I’m taking Andrew’s bed then. But if they wake up they’re still  _ your _ problem.”

If he and Katelyn ever have kids, it’s going to be  _ so much easier than this _ .

 

* * *

“ _ Ow _ , fuck.”

Aaron startles awake to winter sunlight and Neil hitting the bedroom floor with a dull thud. When he rolls to the edge of the mattress he can see Neil - fully-grown adult Neil - looking up at him dazedly. Then he squints. “Aaron?”

Andrew’s head appears, also focussed upwards on Aaron. He says, rough-voiced, “The fuck?”

Aaron rolls back over. “Kevin can explain.”

He only has to ignore Andrew thumping the underside of the bunk twice before he can go back to sleep.


End file.
